1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic album producing and viewing system comprising an image server and a client computer capable of establishing data communication with each other and a method of producing and viewing an electronic album in the system, an image server included in the system and a method of controlling its operation, a client computer included in the system and a method of controlling its operation, and a recording medium storing a program for controlling the client computer.
2. Description of the Background Art
Electronic album software for producing an electronic album using a personal computer has already been commercially available. Generally used as the electronic album software is one for picking up or imaging a subject using a digital still camera, a movie still video camera, and so forth and filing digital image data obtained by the imaging.
However, it is not considered that the electronic album produced using such electronic album software is utilized or enjoyed on a network which has been developed in recent years.
The present invention is directed to a system and a method in which an electronic album is utilized or enjoyed on a new network through which a client (computer) and a server (computer) communicate with each other.
Data representing an electronic album which has been produced in a client computer is uploaded to a server (an image server). The image server serves as a stock server of the electronic albums for an user who has the client computer producing and uploading the electronic album. The user does not need to keep the data representing the electronic album in own computer (client), but can download the data from the server when he or she desires to view the album. The other users than the user who uploaded the electronic album data to the server also can access to the server to view the electronic albums which are kept in the server.
An object of the present invention is to make it possible to produce, in a system comprising an image server and a client computer capable of establishing data communication with each other, an electronic album in at least one client computer and view the produced electronic album in the one or the other client computers.
An electronic album system according to the present invention comprises an image server and a plurality of client computers capable of establishing data communication with each other, wherein frame image specific data for specifying a plurality of frame images and display order data representing the order in which the frame images are displayed are transmitted from the client computer to the image server, and an electronic album file including the frame image specific data and the display order data is, in response to a request to transmit the electronic album file from the client computer, transmitted from the image server to the client computer which has issued the request.
The client computer comprises image data transmission requesting means for requesting the image server to transmit frame image data which the client computer does not have therein, the frame image data representing the frame image specified by frame image specific data included in an electronic album file which has been transmitted from the image server.
The image server comprises frame image data transmission means for transmitting, in response to the above request, the requested frame image data to the client computer which has requested to transmit the frame image data.
The present invention also provides a method suitable for the above-mentioned system. That is, the method is a method of controlling the operation of the electronic album system comprising an image server and a plurality of client computers capable of establishing data communication with each other. The method comprises the steps of correlating frame image specific data for specifying a plurality of frame images and display order data representing the order in which the frame images are displayed with each other and transmitting the frame image specific data and the display order data to the image server from the client computer, transmitting an electronic album file including frame image specific data and display order data, in response to a request to transmit electronic album file from said client computer, to the client computer which has issued the request from the image server, issuing, from the client computer which has requested to transmit the electronic album file to the image server, when the client computer does not store frame image data representing a frame image specified by the frame image specific data which is included in the electronic album file transmitted from the image server, a request to transmit the frame image data, transmitting to the client computer from the image server frame image data representing the frame image constituting the electronic album file in response to the request to transmit the frame image data from the client computer.
The present invention also provides a method of controlling the operation of the electronic album producing client computer and a recording medium storing a program therefor, and a method of controlling the operation of the electronic album viewing client computer and a recording medium storing a program therefor.
An electronic album producing client computer according to the present invention can establish data communication with an image server, and comprises frame image selection means for selecting a plurality of frame images constituting an electronic album, display order determination means for determining the order in which the plurality of frame images selected by the frame image selection means are displayed, and electronic album file creating means for correlating frame image specific data for specifying the plurality of frame images selected by the frame image selection means and display order data representing the order determined by the display order determination means with each other to create an electronic album file.
According to the present invention, in the electronic album producing client computer, the plurality of frame images constituting the electronic album are selected, and the order in which the selected plurality of frame images are displayed is determined. An electronic album file in which the frame image specific data for specifying the selected plurality of frame images and the display order data representing the determined order in which the frame images are displayed are correlated with each other is created and transmitted to the image server.
In the image server, the electronic album file is stored.
When the electronic album viewing client computer accesses the image server storing the electronic album file, the electronic album is viewed.
An electronic album viewing client computer according to the present invention can establish data communication with an image server, and comprises electronic album file receiving means for receiving from the image server an electronic album file including frame image specific data for specifying a plurality of frame images constituting an electronic album and display order data representing the order in which the frame images are displayed, image data download means for downloading from the image server, of frame image data representing the plurality of frame images specified by the frame image specific data received by the electronic album file receiving means, the frame image data which is not stored in the client computer, and first electronic album display control means for controlling a display device such that images represented by the stored frame image data and the frame image data downloaded by the image data download means are displayed in accordance with the display order data.
When the electronic album viewing client computer accesses to the image server, the electronic album file is transmitted to the electronic album viewing client computer from the image server, and is received in the electronic album viewing client computer.
Of the frame image data representing the plurality of frame images specified by the frame image specific data described in the received electronic album file, frame image data which is not stored in the client computer is downloaded to the client computer from the image server.
The frame images represented by the frame image data are displayed on the display device in the order represented by the display order data included in the electronic album file. Consequently, the electronic album is viewed. In the client computer capable of establishing data communication with the image server, it is possible to produce the electronic album, and view the produced electronic album.
The client computer may issue a request for viewing an electronic album to the image server. I this case, the image server comprises display list data transmission means for transmitting, in response to the request for viewing the electronic album, data for displaying a list of a plurality of representative images representing outlines of a plurality of electronic albums to the client computer which has issued the request. The client computer comprises designating means for designating a selected representative image out of the list of the representative images which are represented by the list display data transmitted from the image server and representative image specifying data transmission means for transmitting data specifying the representative image designated by the designating means. The image server transmits to the client computer an electronic album corresponding to the representative image specified by the representative image specifying data which has been transmitted from the client computer.
Since the list of the representative images is displayed on the client computer, the user can know outlines of the available electronic albums to select a desired electronic album to be viewed. The electronic album file corresponding to the selected electronic album is transmitted from the image server to the client computer in response to a request from the client computer.
The client computer may further comprise time data transmission means for transmitting at least one of display time data representing a time period during which the frame image is displayed and electronic album display time data representing a time period during which the electronic album is displayed upon correlating with the frame image specific data and the display order data to the image server.
When the electronic album is viewed, the display of the frame images constituting the electronic album can be switched on the basis of the display time data. A display time desired by a user can be set.
Display effect designation data for designating a display effect representing a way of appearance of the frame image or images constituting the frame image may be correlated with the frame image specific data and the display order data and transmitted to the image server.
Consequently, the frame image or the images constituting the frame image can be displayed on the basis of the display effect designation data. Further, the client computer further comprises simulation display control means for controlling a display device such that simulation display based on the display effect designation data is performed. The simulation display thus becomes possible.
The client computer may further comprise sound data transmission means for correlating sound data representing a sound effect of the electronic album with the frame image specific data and the display order data and transmitting the sound data to the image server.
When the electronic album is viewed, a sound can be played on the basis of the sound data.
Furthermore, the sound data may represent a plurality of sound effects, and the client computer may further comprise sound-related data transmission means for correlating at least one of data representing the start and the end of play of each of sounds, data representing the number of times of repetition of a set of sounds, and data representing a time period during which a fade-in effect is added at the time of the start of the play of the sound and a time period during which a fade-out effect is added at the time of the start of the play of the sound with the frame image specific data and the display order data and transmitting the data to the image server.
Each of the data is stored in the electronic album file, thereby making it possible to arbitrarily set the start and the end of output of each of the sounds to be a plurality of types of BGM, the number of times of repetition of a set of the plurality of sounds, the time period during which a fade-in effect is added at the time of the start of the play of the sound, and the time period during which the fade-out effect is added at the time of the end of the play of the sound depending on the taste of the user.
Furthermore, while a preceding frame image is being displayed, the subsequent display frame image data may be downloaded from the image server to the client computer.
In the client computer, the electronic album can be viewed while the image data is being downloaded from the image server. Rapid viewing becomes possible.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.